Paris Air Show 2023: Airbus looks to internationalise H175M helo beyond the UK

Being developed for the UK NMH requirement, the H175M is also being pitched to the wider international market. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Airbus is looking to add international partners to the H175M medium-lift helicopter that it is developing for the UK New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement.

Speaking to Janes at the Paris Air Show 2023 on 19 June, Lenny Brown, managing director of Airbus Helicopters UK, said that while the UK remains its focus, international interest in the H175M has already been received.

“We have been talking to other nations to bring them into the programme. Norway has expressed an interest for its special forces and army, and there has been interest from a couple of Middle Eastern countries also,” Brown said.

Brown's comments coincided with the debut of the H175M at the Paris Air Show 2023 in Le Bourget, reflecting Airbus Helicopters' desire to broaden the scope of the platform's sales potential out from the 36 to 44 units, outlined in the NMH requirement, to the hundreds of potential helicopters projected for the international market over the coming decades.

“We see the medium and super-medium class at about 150 helicopters out to 2030, and another 350 from 2031 to 2050,” he said. “There have been plenty of international delegations [look at the H175M], and we have done an in-depth country-by-country analysis to see what the global demand is for it.”

As Brown noted, while none of this detracts from the UK being Airbus Helicopters' primary focus for the H175M, the helicopter will remain central to its future plans should it not secure that requirement.